Chargers seek to recover from ‘gut punch’
Jim Harbaugh called Rashan Slater’s injury a gut punch, but is the Chargers offensive line about to get speedbagged? Rookie Sasaki is still painfree as he nears a return to the Dodgers and USC football suffers its first notable training camp injury. Good morning, I’m James and this is your daily dose of sports and snark for the greatest sports city in the world, Los Angeles. This is the Faithful Angelino’s morning report. It is August 9th, 2025. I am back in Oregon for work. Please take a moment, even pause the clip, and enjoy the surroundings of my halfstar hotel. We added a new subscriber to the Angelino Familia last night. We’re going to do our best to keep you informed. And if you like being in the know about LA Sports, please clack the like button. Cles subscribe button. There’s a notification bell. Hit that. It lets you know when we drop new content. Sharing is caring. Let people know we exist. And by all means, comment. Now, before we go through the news and notes, a quick look at the scoreboard. Dodgers 5, Toronto 1. The Dodgers lead the West by three. The Magic number is down to 45. Meanwhile, today we actually have a pretty decent schedule. Toronto is still in town to play the Dodgers at six. Dallas is at the Rams to kick off NFL preseason. That’s at 4. LAFC is at Chicago at 5:30. The Sparks are at Golden State at 5:30. And Angel City is down south. They’re going to be at Slime Diego. That kicks off at 7. So, what do you say we get to the news? My friends know I’ve written two books. The sales were kind of meh. I’m h I’m okay with it. I didn’t expect to be a best-selling author, but if I were to write a self-help book, I know nobody would buy it. because I’m a hater. I’m a pessimist. I would probably write a self-help book and call it something like, “Stop kidding yourself. Reality always wins.” And I bring this up because for once, Jim Harbaugh shelved all of those positive thinking mantras that comes flying out of his mouth and admitted reality. He called losing tackle Rashan Slater for the year a gut punch. And if we’re honest with ourselves, you have to look at the Chargers offensive line and wonder where the hell are they, right? It’s not the worst line in football. I don’t want to go that far, but it damn sure ain’t a good offensive line after losing the cornerstone of the unit either. Where are they? I mean, it it could have been much worse. We just don’t know how much worse because in retrospect when we were talking about should the Chargers draft a receiver at five in the 2024 draft, they went instead and they drafted Joe Alt. That was fortuitous. They’re also fortunate that they didn’t cut loose Trey Pipkins as some scribes suggested that they would. If you recall last season, Pipkin stunk up the joint when they tried to shift him to guard last year. Right tackle is his natural position. Even still, Harbaugh confessed to NFL.com that the whole situation stank. He listed his starting five offensive linemen and then said, “Nothing is set in stone, but that’s where we’re at.” Unquote. So, if it’s not set in stone and you’re hooked on the positive affirmations, you might be telling yourself, “Wait, that must mean that there’s help coming in the market.” Nope, not happening. Oh, the Bolts are going to be bringing in linemen this weekend, but that’s not going to be to find a starter. That’s because they’ve had so many questions. The depth of the unit is in peril now. Harbaugh added, quote, “I know my team. I know they’re going to step up. I don’t go with the cliche. It would be embarrassing to tell them next man up or that we all have to step up even more when you have a great player that has lost for the season. I wouldn’t embarrass them with telling them that because I know they’re going to do it.” Now, none of this is to suggest that Joe Alt is a fish out of water. The guy started 33 games at left tackle for Notre Dame. The point is the stability of the line overall. Free agent edition Mai Beckton hasn’t practiced in over a week. Andre James, a free agent guy who used to play for the Raiders. That line was trash. He has been subbing in with the first teamers at center because Brad Boseman, for whatever reason, hasn’t practiced in a few days. So, you have one starter out for the year. You have two that aren’t practicing. That’s more than a gut punch, guys. I’m not saying you ask for a refund on your season ticket, you’re not going to get it anyway. But you have to wonder where the hell that line is. One of the biggest first moves of NFL free agency, by the way, was when the Chargers added running back Niji Harris. And we were talking a moment ago about how bringing in Joe Alt was a fortuitous contingency plan. It’s a damn good thing they drafted Omari and Hampton in the first round because Harbaugh can’t even guarantee that Harris is going to be available for week one. Harbaugh still hasn’t divulged the extent of the damage that Harris did to his own eyes. You might recall Harris, he he just wouldn’t let go of a lit firework until it went off in his face like a Warner Brothers cartoon, said Harbaugh. Quote, I don’t comment because I’m not a doctor. I’m not Mr. Harris’s agent either. I’m talking about what I know. And can he open his eye? Yeah, I looked into his eye. I can tell you stuff like that.” Unquote. And I can tell you that no supervisor I ever had called me mister. Not unless they were in contact with human resources about a meeting, about my future. Right. Gotta learn how to handle your fireworks, people. Let me know, of course, what you think if you’re a Charger fan. Rookie Sasaki, meanwhile, threw a three inning simulated game Friday, 46 pitches, he touched 97 miles an hour. Remember, the Dodgers were suggesting that Sasaki try not to impress the girls by hitting 100 m hour with every pitch. Sasaki hasn’t been in the game since May. Dave Roberts added that the guy has hit the weight room a little bit too and as a result Sasaki’s motion quote wasn’t as shouldery unquote, whatever the hell that means. There hasn’t been a decision as to whether Sasaki will get another simulated game or head to the Midwest Manure Pit for a rehab assignment. Mookie Betts, meanwhile, if you recall, he said he was allegedly out of ideas, that everything about his seasonl long slump he was just going to turn over to God. Well, I’m not trying to say that the Dodgers are a bunch of atheists, but they had at least had one more idea up their sleeve. They summoned Betts’s former teammate, designated hitter JD Martinez, to hang out with the guy when the Dodgers recently played in Tampon Bay. See, Martinez and Betts played together both in LA and Boston. Now, to be clear, I don’t know what they discussed at the batting cage. What I can tell you is Betts is on a roll. He has six hits in his last three games, including a home run last night. Former Dodger starter Alex Wood retired after 12 major league seasons. He pitched for five teams in his career. He was named to the All-Star team as a Dodger in 2017 and was part of the World Championship team in 2020. USC defensive back Prophet Brown will miss quote the first part of the season unquote. This is due to a non-cont injury according to Lincoln Riley. Brown was an option to start at Nickelback this season and this is the first injury of any significance that the Trojans have endured this fall. They still have options by the way in the de defensive backfield. Transfer DJ Harvey could get a look for example. Also, the Trojans continue to add to the recruiting class of 2026, albeit this guy’s a walk-on. He’s not getting a scholarship yet. Lyola safety Peter Scuraniano is the 31st pledge to the class. The scribes are trying to make it sound like it is a very big deal that Kevin Love is considering playing for the Clippers and this would be a big deal 10 years ago. I mean, right now the dude is breaking out the bif focals, firing open a nice can of ice cold Metamucil. He’s looking over the landscape and he realized that the only team in the NBA that would be okay with signing a broken down 36-year-old power forward is the Clippers because the Clippers are already the oldest team in NBA history at 33.2 2 years old. What’s another What’s another boomer to the lineup? Am I right? And and I get that when we’re talking about the Clippers this year, it’s going to be super tempting to break out the old fart jokes. I get it because when it comes to old people farting, it wouldn’t surprise me if the cheapest tickets in into an arena are right behind the Clipper bench. Who the hell wants to sit behind that? But instead of jokes, let’s put it into perspective. Kevin Love went to UCLA when George W. Bush was handing the nuclear codes to Barack Obama. That’s how old he and the Clippers are. Two-time Stanley Cup champion Kyle Clifford has retired after 13 seasons. The scribes called him an enforcer. I don’t know how accurate I would say that is. You know, hockeyy’s changed over the years. You didn’t always need a guy looking for a fight on the ice anymore. But either way, physical player, useful player. The Kings were happy to have him. He got both of his titles in LA. Now, he also has a job waiting for him in Toronto that he’s hung his uh skates up. Would you let me know what you think in the comments thread? What do you think of the state of the Chargers offensive line now? For that matter, what about Roki Sasaki? Is it literally just as simple for him as to hit the weight room and not to just go throw 100 miles an hour all the time? And if you enjoyed the de uh the update, don’t forget to subscribe to Faithful Angelinos. We’re talking LA sports every single day here. Thank you for watching. I’m James and we’ll be back tomorrow. Faithful Angelinos is a Kian Portel Queso production. Take care.
Will the Chargers offensive line get speed bagged this year? Roki Sasaki ramps up for a Dodger return. USC gets hit with its first concerning training camp injury. Plus Clippers, Kings.
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